Green, frugal, sustainable, simple, healthy, happy... No matter what we each call it, we come together here to support and learn from each other.
We are preserving our planet with our lifestyles. We are creating sustainable communities for our children. We are living the lives we want to live. Please join us!
You made goals or resolutions for 2010. You have life-long goals, ambitions, hopes, dreams… So no more excuses - I challenge you to follow through and DO IT!!
10,000 Steps Challenge
That's the general number of steps needed to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system and help keep your weight in check. With environmental and emotional benefits to boot, let's start walking!
The Green Your Insides Challenge
For your family and our planet, start greening your own home!
I received a thought-provoking email recently that I’d thought I’d put to you all to answer.
Hi Melinda!
I am soooooo not a blog-commenter, you cannot imagine! Pretty safe to say this is my first.
Your site is so real and honest. I was browsing purely for research yet the character ringing through these pages was so… crystal, I think?… I couldn’t help but engage.
I live in the Philippines, a developing country in Asia. While my family is in that slim ratio of the more materially fortunate, our country is beset with poverty, corruption and moral decay. As such, the ideals on this site sound removed from reality, as esoteric as a new religion. Even as IN PRACTICE it all comes down to things our pre-colonial ancestors took for granted! Conditioning shampoo made from tree-bark, leaves/roots/flowers in everything, water kept cool in clay jars, giant palm fronds pulled manually to cool the room, wood-burning stoves… my own grandmother was a poster girl for green!
It’s when we think of it as modern or alternative or even Western that it feels hokey. Being poor and still agricultural, maybe we don’t need to call it “green”. It’s just what our mothers did.
And then I wonder: isn’t that true even for you guys???
Best of luck with this undertaking!
If there’s anything I can do…
Adele
What I Believe
Thank you for your thought-provoking question, Adele!
First off, I don’t want to make anyone feel bad about their lifestyle, because whether or not it’s a Western invention, I think it’s necessary given how far our Western culture has gone astray.
Secondly, I also believe that back to the basics or living as our mothers did is a bit artificial, because our lives ARE different than our mother’s and grandmother’s, and I don’t believe it’s realistic nor healthy to be always looking back. There are many things I learned from my grandmother and mother that I do want to return to my normal life. But there are a lot of aspects in the contemporary world that are essential to understand and be a part of in order to change society.
For example, I can’t blog if I go back to the simplicity of life during my grandmother’s time. Yet I feel I’m creating great change in my life as well as thousands of others’ lives by blogging. I also can’t run a business that creates wide-spread change without utilizing modern tools and reaching people where they are, which often means reaching people with technology.
And finally, my mother and grandmother didn’t always have it easy, and didn’t have time to do some of the things I do today. I did try to live a lifestyle that was self-sufficient and idolized an old way of doing things. But I found that I didn’t have time to reach out to others, I didn’t have enough money to survive as a family, nor did I totally enjoy a lifestyle that so fully centered around my own daily life.
So I see living a sustainable lifestyle as utilizing the tools we need to use in order to generate change, while reincorporating some of the timeless values of our ancestors. In other words, taking the best of both worlds, both generations.
What Do You Believe?
Are we just creating another artificial, hokey alternative?
Please feel free to email me with questions you have about sustainable living. I receive an awful lot of ads and press releases, of which about 99.9% of them I ignore (there are no ads on this site!) – so don’t send ads unless it really pertains to what we discuss here. Questions and resources, however, are very much welcome!
And please, please, please answer any of the following questions in the comments – you all know more about some of this than I do!!
Questions
How Do You Get Rid of An Ant Problem?
From Viki:
I live in a centennial farm house. The kitchen floor is actually not on a traditional foundation rather it is apx. 2 foot off dirt with actual bolders of sort holding up the joists with a reinforced (over the years) stone foundation. These dirty little ‘pisants’ mostly show themselves come dead of winter-I live in MI. I have done traps. I kill when found. I swear they are the goffiest to kill as you can actually squeze them into nothing and away they go again.TINY brats. Do you have any recommedations for this problem. What is their normal habitat? Are they living in the 100+ year old floor boards? I am at wits end. Thanks for any info you have or have heard of. Viki
Viki, I’ve had that experience as well – the ants seem to like to come in when it gets cold or rainy. I would trace the ants to wherever they’re coming in, and then spray where they’re coming in.
At the same time, you have to be very diligent of taking away all the food they might find. I had a severe ant infestation once, in Los Angeles, and ended up buying a lot of air tight containers to put up dog food, flour, crackers, pastas, everything they might find. I had to keep the counters free of all crumbs. And I even had to make the bathroom clean because they liked eating soap! But once I was diligent about that for about a month, the ants stopped looking in my home.
Lastly, if you have a yard, they might be coming from somewhere out there. Check around your yard and see if you can find the hill. There were also some great comments in this post that might help.
Good luck! -Melinda
Why Do You Soak Lemons Overnight To Make Marmalade?
From Robert:
I thought Meyer was Myer, boy was I wrong.
I am starting your recipe this afternoon and need a point of clarification, please.
You have us add the water to the lemons and “let stand overnight”, is the o/v nite necessary? Otherwise I’d have this canned by supper. {fresh rockfish w/ a lite sause, orzo w/ a bit of the sauce and a green salad.}
Likely I won’t hear back by then so I will follow the instructions but I would like an answer to the why when you can spare the time.
Thanks a bunch
Robert
Hi Robert,
Letting it stand overnight allows the pith (white interior part of the skin) to soak. The pith is what makes marmalade gel – it’s the reason you don’t need to add gelatin to marmalade, but you do need to add it to berry jam for example.
I have not tried to make it without soaking overnight. It’s possible it would work but would take longer to gel… but it is also possible that you will not be able to get it to gel at all. So if you want some tonight for fish, and you don’t really care if it gels much, try a small batch and see what happens! (And do let me know if you try it – I’m interested to hear!) But for longer term storage, I highly recommend the overnight soaking.
With all my best,
Melinda
How Do you Grow Tea Hydroponically?
From Monica:
I think your [Camelia Sinensis] article is great and was wondering whether you know anything about growing this plant hydroponically?
Thanks in advance.
Linda.
Hi Linda, unfortunately I’m not a hydroponic grower so I can’t help you – does anyone know???
How Do I Discourage A Raccoon From The Garden?
From swift:
there is a raccoon attacking my strawberry patch, how do i get rid of it?
Hi there, I wrote an article a while back about how to deter bunnies – there may be some things there that could help. But I’ve never had to deal with them myself, except as innocent onlookers. Anyone have any good advice for deterring raccoons?
How Do I Email Your Post?
From Nanette:
there’s an ant infestation in my daughter’s condo. i would like to send her [your article]… because right now she is using RAID! how do i copy this and send it to her?
Hi Nanette,
Down at the bottom of each article, there is a program called “ShareThis”. (It’s located right under the “Similar Posts” section.) If you click on “ShareThis”, the very first option that appears is “Email”. Just click “Email”, and it will send the article!
Hope that helps! Let me know if I can help further.
Have a lovely day,
Melinda
Resources
Seed Saver’s Exchange
From Corrin:
[Removed due to an unverifiable source.]
Answers?
Please help answer the questions above! Leave a comment below, or if you’d rather, send me an email. If you enjoy these posts and find them useful, please let me know.
I love the new email system I found for the blog, and apparently you all do as well, because I’m receiving some fabulous emails! I thought I’d periodically share reader questions, and throw them out to our community for answers. If this works, maybe we could make it a regular Sunday occurrence.
Please feel free to email me with questions you have about sustainable living. I receive an awful lot of ads and press releases, of which about 99.9% of them I ignore (there are no ads on this site!) – so don’t send ads unless it really pertains to what we discuss here. Questions and resources, however, are very much welcome!
And please, please, please answer any of the following questions in the comments – you all know more about some of this than I do!!
Questions
Where Can I Find Seeds and Seed-starting Information for Long Island?
From Nadya:
I am starting a modest garden, would love to make it a four season one, but need some advice. First of all about seeds sources, and starting plants before spring planting season.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Dear Melinda,
I’m interested in growing white tea which is not being grown here in Kenya where I live. Have you any advice to offer? Growing conditions & times? How to source seeds/saplings to plant as an experiment. Thank you & regards.
Gerry
Gerry, I’ve written about how to grow tea here: How To Grow Tea (Camellia Sinensis). Unfortunately that post includes the extent of my knowledge – does someone else here have more experience growing tea? -Melinda
How Do I Join The Growing Challenge?
From Marlene:
I am starting my FIRST vegetable garden. And I stumbled across your web-site. I would like to join the Growing Challenge but could not figure out how to do so.
Marlene, congratulations on starting your first garden! Leave a comment in the post here: The Growing Challenge. In your comment, include your name, where you’re gardening, and your hardiness zone. (There are directions in that post for finding your hardiness zone if you don’t know what your zone is.) That’s it! -Melinda
Why Are My Chickens Killing Each Other??!
From Monica:
I have 150 leghorn chickens who lay brown eggs and seem to have problems with them packing each other to death. I have had chickens for four years now and have never seen this before. Can you tell me why this would be happening?
Hi Monica, A while back Shawna wrote asking a very similar question. While I didn’t know the answer, several experienced readers did – please check out this post as well as the great comments from readers below the post: Where Do You Turn For Chicken-Raising Advice? -Melinda
Where Can I Find Scrub Oak Seedlings?
From Arline:
I want to start a scrub oak project at my school. Do you know where I can get seeds or seedlings for free or for a very small price? Thank you, Arline I am in central florida
Arline, Great idea!! I mentioned Forest Farm in my list of favorite seed catalogs the other day – I would try there, though it is not free by any means. You might ask them if they can give you a discount, donation, or a suggestion for a free resource, given the great project you’re working on.
In Seattle, there is a local program where you can volunteer to transplant native plants for a day and receive any left over plants you like for free. Maybe try one of the local environmental organizations and see if they know of such a program in your area.
Anyone have a good resource for Arline? -Melinda
Resources
Buying Locally Database
From Megan:
I read your recent post “Sustainability Begins at Home” and decided to stay and look around the website. I found the “Buy Sustainably Challenge” and noticed that number 2 on the list is “Buy Locally”. What’s great about your text that follows is the last 6 words, “…has a local source for them.” My husband and I created and run a website, www.gobelocal.com, which is a national database of vendors searchable by state and category – Bath & Body, Food, Restaurants, Pet, etc. Specifically, we only list vendors that have a “local compenent” to their finished product. For example, a restaurant that uses local produce/meat in their dishes or a weaver that uses local wool to make scarves both qualify to be listed on our site. We created the website to help consumers/distributors support local vendors and their suppliers as well. It is good to see other people acknowledge the supplier part of buying locally. Thanks.
Steel Baby Bottles
From Ann:
Note that this is pretty close to an ad, but I thought some of you would find this useful. If you’re interested in trying one out, let me know – they’ve offered to send me a sample, and I’m happy to give one or two away!
For the first time, there is a stainless steel baby bottle! I thought you might have interest in a first look at this great green find… This electro-polished stainless steel bottle is BPA free, hygienic, lightweight, durable and will not leach anything into a child’s drink. The bottles are available in an array of colors including spring green, racing red, pretty pink., aqua blue and tangerine…. The feeding system grows with a child – turning from a bottle with slow-flow silicone nipple to a medium-flow bottle and then ultimately a sippy bottle with sip spout! www.purastainless.com
Answers?
Please help answer the questions above! Leave a comment below, or if you’d rather, send me an email. If you enjoy these posts and find them useful, please let me know.
I hope your long weekend was absolutely fabulous. This year Matt and I did things a little differently, and we celebrated at home, bringing in the New Year together, deliberately and retrospectively. Oh sure, we did walk down to the rooftop deck and watched the fireworks over the Space Needle with a group of neighbors as the clock struck midnight. But then we came back home, and celebrated quietly and honestly.
And I must say I really do feel renewed and ready to move forward in 2010!
So whether you formally make a resolution, or you have resolved to do things a little differently in 2010, please share your new goals! Let’s all help one another to reach those new goals in the coming months.
My Goals…
1. I have struggled to keep our community strong through 2009, as I moved and reoriented my life to a new city and new career. But I love this community, and I believe we are creating a much-needed resource in the world: a community where people can learn how to change their lifestyles, and find support through those changes.
So my goal this year is to bring One Green Generation to a whole lot more people!!! OH YEAH!! And you can help me by spreading the word, becoming a Facebook fan, leaving comments, asking questions, and in general visiting regularly. Here’s what I will do:
Write more about my daily lifestyle changes. It is clear from the comments and emails I receive that you all are looking for more about how to make those little but oh so important changes in your lives. So in addition to working together to change via some key Challenges, my goal is to write more about the daily struggles and solutions I come upon.
I know I’ve been absent from the comments, and haven’t had the time to engage as much lately. My goal is to work those interactions into my daily schedule so that this becomes a more interactive site again.
2. I started my own business a little over a year ago, in the bottom of the worst recession in my lifetime. It has survived, and I love the work we are doing. But it has been a struggle financially. My goal is to make a good living doing what I love this year. What do I love? Telling stories that change the world.
3. My third goal is to do whatever it takes to accomplish #1 and #2 together. They are both meaningful, important aspects of my life, and there are some things I can do to make them work better together without my sacrificing my amazing life with my family and friends. So I will start to enact those this week.
THIS IS GOING TO BE AN AMAZING YEAR!! I’m looking forward to it. Are you??!
Hello and Happy New Year to all tenured and new readers! Welcome!
I’ve spent many hours updating the back end of the blog so that it has the latest software, plugins, etc. I’ve been able to fix some quirks that were irking me for a long time. And thanks to those of you who offered your input – I hope I’ve addressed all of your concerns.
Tell Me What You Think!
Ok, quick poll: please tell me what you think of the design and the new features listed below.
New Features
There are a few new features that you’ll discover here.
“Question? Just Ask!” In the sidebar you’ll see a section for asking questions. I often receive emails from people asking how to do this or that, or what product I use for so and so. I love these emails, and want to make your questions more a part of the site. So if you have a question about something I haven’t answered in the Archives, please ask them here! I will either try to answer them in a post or I will ask them of our community.
Rate This Post. Maybe you just want to say you like a post, but don’t have time to write a comment. Now you can give it 5 stars to let me know you liked it! That will help me considerably to know which posts are hitting home for you all, and which ones don’t help as much. It will also help other readers find the posts that you all like most. Please rate posts often!! I will start using this to cater my writing to what you all respond to most – it will help me become a better writer.
“Lifestyle Changes” Page. This new page (in the navigation at the top of every page here) will include many posts about how to make simple changes in your home, as well as bridging those changes into the rest of your life – including work, commute, recreation, and long-term choices. It’s almost complete, and will be up shortly.
Donate Button. I have realized over the years that a lot of readers think I make money writing here. I don’t. I turn down the many offers I receive to put ads on the site. I write without pay, for the good of the world and for the good of all of us. In fact, I pay to write! I pay for the website hosting, domain, etc. It works out to about $100/month. As I’m also running a startup and Matt is in school, it’s actually a lot of money for us at the moment. So I have put a donate button in the sidebar. If you feel you have the money to help, and you feel this website is helping you in some way, please donate any amount here. However, if you are in a similar situation to us where you don’t have money to help, please don’t worry about it and continue to add value in your comments, post ratings, and lifestyle changes!
New Quirks
Unfortunately, everything new has it’s own set of quirks. There aren’t many, but there are a few… Mainly, the new theme has made old posts look a bit wonky. I will go through the most popular posts and correct them, but considering how many hundreds of pages there are here, I won’t ever have time to do that for all of them. Apologies. They’ll remain visually wonky but hopefully still full of good content.
Find a Bug? Let Me Know!
If there are quirks and irks you discover as you peruse the new site, please let me know. I’m only one person here, so while I’ve troubleshot and tried my best to fix everything, there are likely a few things I’ve missed, or things that only come up in certain browsers. Please let me know. Leave a comment here, or send me an email letting me know. Please – I’ll be very grateful for your help!
Still Hoping For A Feature That Isn’t Here?
Maybe you were shy and didn’t tell me something you wanted, hoping that I’d fix it on my own. Or maybe you were out of town and didn’t have the chance to tell me earlier. Or a month from now, something comes to you that you wish was here. Don’t be shy – I want to know! Please leave a comment here, or send me an email. You can always send me an email. I won’t guarantee that I’ll be able to add the feature, but I’ll take it into serious consideration.
I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for reading, and for your participation in this community. You all are amazing in all that you do, and I feel privileged to be a part of each of your lives in some way. Thank you.
I’ll be spending the next few days doing some housekeeping here. There are some usability issues that I’ve been wanting to fix for a while, and I need to update the Wordpress software – it’s extremely out of date!
And I would LOVE your input. Is there anything you’re missing? Anything that drives you crazy? Or conversely, anything you want to make sure I keep, or that you want to see more of? PLEASE LET ME KNOW!! I want to make this the most incredible and useful site it can be, and you can help by telling me how you feel about it.
You can just write your ideas straight in the comments below, or you can email me if you’re more comfortable. I appreciate in advance your thoughtfulness – this really will help me a great deal.
Until the New Year… Have a safe and wonderful holiday season.
Hi everyone. Hope you’re having a lovely start of the week, and that my “feeling sluggish” post helped a bit!
I just received an email asking for thoughts about going technology free at school. I think it’s a FABULOUS idea, and thought you all might have some great suggestions for this young reader:
I am currently trying to organize an technology free day event here on my school, it would be a festival where we have fun with friends and family field day events and reading and storytelling. i was wondering if you had any ideas about games i can play or just ideas in general.
Please don’t be shy – I’m sure everything you suggest will be helpful!!!!
We are living in difficult economic times. Join us in saving our family budgets and helping our local communities thrive.
Translator
Donations
This site is totally ad free, and I fund it on my own. So if you feel this website is helping you in some way, please donate $5, $10, $20 to help fund the site.
Just $25 in donations will pay for the site's hosting for one month.
My Grandmother
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